fertilizer Fertilizer advice - How many types do you need?

Sarge

Sarge

Hey all,
 
Recently I potted up my plants into some potting mix with perlite, fertilized coir peat brick and some dynamic lifter. Ive also put some epsom salts on the surface just for a little mag boost. The potting mix I used was specifically formulated for veggies and contains good amounts of iron and calcium for prevention of BER and good new growth. It says on the bag it feeds for up to 4 months.
 
This is where my question lies. Amongst the food that is already in the potting mix, plus the dynamic lifer, plus the fertilizer on the coir brick, what other nutrients am I required to give the plants? Ive got seasol here and also have powerfeed. Both are seaweed based products, one with no N one with some N. Is a weekly feed sufficient to establish a plant in its final pot and bring it up to good size and fruition? Or is it not that simple and a game of chemistry in that I need to feed when the plant shows signs or feed enough so no signs come up.
 
I hope what I'm asking is clear. The bag of dynamic lifter suggests to add more every x amount of months. I just don't know if there is anything else to add inbetween.
 
There are many great fertilizers out there and they all do the job for sure, but a lot of us use compost or clippings to help the soil itself. So we do not have to use as much fertilizer.  But if fertilizer is more ideal for you I like any type of fish emulsion ferts. They smell bad sometimes but once they are applied they do wonders! 
 
As for how much to fertilize, that depends on the plants themselves. Some plants like mrs some less so you really have to judge it by the plant. Depending on the dilution of the fert I use (especially fish ferts) I will do fertilizer every 1.5 - 2.5 weeks, a little sooner if the plant is showing signs of some type of deficiencies. But using more natural ferts along with compost tea and the likes has always been good to me. peppers love it, and it's how I learned to grow in the first place. The better you treat your soil, the better your plants will do.
 
Do you know the ratio of the ferts you're using right now to give us a better idea of a good schedule to feed on?
 
That sounds like an awful lot of fertilizer to me, Sarge. At the least, I would hold off on the Power Feed for the time being and see how your plants go with whatever is already in the potting mix and coco. A good rule of thumb when getting to know your fertilizer, start small and gradually increase if need be. It is much better to underfeed than it is to overfeed. ;)
 
Dynamic Lifter... great stuff! Gentle enough but I would be very careful using it alongside the two other fertilizers already in the mix. Less is so much more in this case. Resist the urge to throw large amounts at your plants (if you feel it) and think of it as nothing more than a helper, and thus not required in large amounts.
 
As it is not actually a fertilizer, Seasol should be fine to use.
 
LawrenceJ2007 said:
There are many great fertilizers out there and they all do the job for sure, but a lot of us use compost or clippings to help the soil itself. So we do not have to use as much fertilizer.  But if fertilizer is more ideal for you I like any type of fish emulsion ferts. They smell bad sometimes but once they are applied they do wonders! 
 
As for how much to fertilize, that depends on the plants themselves. Some plants like mrs some less so you really have to judge it by the plant. Depending on the dilution of the fert I use (especially fish ferts) I will do fertilizer every 1.5 - 2.5 weeks, a little sooner if the plant is showing signs of some type of deficiencies. But using more natural ferts along with compost tea and the likes has always been good to me. peppers love it, and it's how I learned to grow in the first place. The better you treat your soil, the better your plants will do.
 
Do you know the ratio of the ferts you're using right now to give us a better idea of a good schedule to feed on?
Click to expand...
 
Right now, I don't use any fertz. Apart from what is in the potting mix and peat brick, the only thing I've added was the dynamic lifter. Maybe every second week I will water them in with half strength seasol since some are putting on alot of growth and trying to push out flowers which I pinch off(they are just way too small to become potential fruit).
 
gasificada said:
That sounds like an awful lot of fertilizer to me, Sarge. At the least, I would hold off on the Power Feed for the time being and see how your plants go with whatever is already in the potting mix and coco. A good rule of thumb when getting to know your fertilizer, start small and gradually increase if need be. It is much better to underfeed than it is to overfeed. ;)
 
Dynamic Lifter... great stuff! Gentle enough but I would be very careful using it alongside the two other fertilizers already in the mix. Less is so much more in this case. Resist the urge to throw large amounts at your plants (if you feel it) and think of it as nothing more than a helper, and thus not required in large amounts.
 
As it is not actually a fertilizer, Seasol should be fine to use.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't added any powerfeed or seasol. Just the two in the soil and coir brick plus the dynamic lifter as a little slow release. The package suggested about 30g. I used about 15g, just a small sprinkle around the outer rim of the pots. What you said is exactly the reason I use it, I do consider it a helper. Those granules are quite slow to dissolve so I know their push of nutes will be slow.
 
A fellow chilli grower I know suggested two products for me for when the plants are ready to start producing flowers and pods. 
 
Manutec Bloom Booster and Manutec Potash. This is where my confusion lies. Lets assume my plants do just fine, can I, for the season of these plants, just keep throwing dynamic lifter at them when needed or will they eventually need more? If that potting mix contains 4 months of feed, will it alone be enough to hold them until the end of the season? Also read that potash and bloom booster can both really improve a plants strength against pests and disease.
 
Ah ok man! Well like I said the more natural you do things, the better the pods come out to me. This is true for soil plants, Hydroponics I go all synthetic.
 
Sarge said:
Right now, I don't use any fertz. Apart from what is in the potting mix and peat brick, the only thing I've added was the dynamic lifter. Maybe every second week I will water them in with half strength seasol since some are putting on alot of growth and trying to push out flowers which I pinch off(they are just way too small to become potential fruit).
 
 
I haven't added any powerfeed or seasol. Just the two in the soil and coir brick plus the dynamic lifter as a little slow release. The package suggested about 30g. I used about 15g, just a small sprinkle around the outer rim of the pots. What you said is exactly the reason I use it, I do consider it a helper. Those granules are quite slow to dissolve so I know their push of nutes will be slow.
 
A fellow chilli grower I know suggested two products for me for when the plants are ready to start producing flowers and pods. 
 
Manutec Bloom Booster and Manutec Potash. This is where my confusion lies. Lets assume my plants do just fine, can I, for the season of these plants, just keep throwing dynamic lifter at them when needed or will they eventually need more? If that potting mix contains 4 months of feed, will it alone be enough to hold them until the end of the season? Also read that potash and bloom booster can both really improve a plants strength against pests and disease.
Click to expand...
Does the follow chilli grower have a photo of the back of the suggested Manutec Bloom Booster? Manutec appear to only provide the NPK and not the rest of the detail of their fertiliser products on their web site.

I made an effort to document a few of them in some of my posts:

Manutec Tomato Food 14:7:24 (MTO6712):
harry said:
Code: 
ANALYSIS ....................... % W/W
TOMATO FOOD 14:7:24
Nitrogen (N) as Urea ............. 6.8
Nitrogen (N) as Nitrate .......... 6.1
Nitrogen (N) as Ammonium ......... 1.1
TOTAL NITROGEN (N) .............. 14.0
Phosphorus (P) as Water Soluble .. 7.0
TOTAL PHOSPHORUS (P) ............. 7.0
Potassium (K) as Nitrate ........ 18.0
Potassium (K) as Phosphate ....... 6.0
TOTAL POTASSIUM (K) ............. 24.0
Maximum Biuret ................... 0.4
TRACE ELEMENTS
Calcium (Ca) as EDTA Chelate ... 0.100
Magnesium (Mg) as EDTA Chelate . 0.030
Magnesium (Mg) as Sulphate ..... 0.144
Sulphur (S) as Sulphate ........ 0.186
Iron (Fe) as EDTA Chelate ...... 0.065
Manganese (Mn) as EDTA Chelate . 0.026
Copper (Cu) as EDTA Chelate .... 0.015
Zinc (Zn) as EDTA Chelate ...... 0.015
Boron (B) as Borate ............ 0.011
Molybdenum (Mo) as Molybdate ... 0.004
Click to expand...
Note the apparent absence of Potassium sulphate (aka Potash) from the above analysis.

Manutec Tomato Magic (MTO6713):
harry said:
Code: 
%W/W  ANALYSIS
5.50  Nitrogen (N) as Nitrate
6.50  Nitrogen (N) as Urea
12.00 Total Nitrogen (N)
8.00  Total Phosphorus (P) as water soluble
20.00 Total Potassium (K) as water soluble
0.70  Calcium (Ca) as Nitrate
1.30  Calcium (Ca) as Phosphate
2.00  Total Calcium (Ca)
0.70  Magnesium (Mg) as Sulphate
0.40  Sulphur (S) as Sulphate
0.05  Manganese (Mn) as EDTA Chelate
0.10  Iron (Fe) as EDTA Chelate
0.01  Copper (Cu) as EDTA Chelate
0.01  Zinc (Zn) as EDTA Chelate
0.10  Boron (B) as Soluble Boron
0.002 Molybdenum (Mo) as Sodium Molybdate
Click to expand...
Note the omission about the compounds from which Potassium is derived in the above analysis.

I switched from the first product to the second product for use on plants that had depleted their pots of nutrients. What remains rather noticeable is the white salt that precipitates out of solution when the solution of fertiliser and rain water in the plant saucers evaporates. I suspect the precipitate is Calcium sulphate coming out of solution.

I'll document the analysis of one of the 250g / 500g pack of Manutec Bloom Booster next time I come across it at a store. If it contains a significant percentage of Potassium sulphate in the formulation then there would be a lesser need to supplement the feeding with even more Potash.

Alas the game of chemistry is very much in play here as today I noticed a mixture of rain water and powdered Manutec Trace Elements (see this post for the analysis) change from a milky white to a yellow before I completed watering the plants.
 
harry said:
Does the follow chilli grower have a photo of the back of the suggested Manutec Bloom Booster? Manutec appear to only provide the NPK and not the rest of the detail of their fertiliser products on their web site.

I made an effort to document a few of them in some of my posts:

Manutec Tomato Food 14:7:24 (MTO6712):
Note the apparent absence of Potassium sulphate (aka Potash) from the above analysis.

Manutec Tomato Magic (MTO6713):
Note the omission about the compounds from which Potassium is derived in the above analysis.

I switched from the first product to the second product for use on plants that had depleted their pots of nutrients. What remains rather noticeable is the white salt that precipitates out of solution when the solution of fertiliser and rain water in the plant saucers evaporates. I suspect the precipitate is Calcium sulphate coming out of solution.

I'll document the analysis of one of the 250g / 500g pack of Manutec Bloom Booster next time I come across it at a store. If it contains a significant percentage of Potassium sulphate in the formulation then there would be a lesser need to supplement the feeding with even more Potash.

Alas the game of chemistry is very much in play here as today I noticed a mixture of rain water and powdered Manutec Trace Elements (see this post for the analysis) change from a milky white to a yellow before I completed watering the plants.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Harry, just a very quick reply as I am late for work but I got a pic of the rear of the box. The first thing I noticed, knowing Manutec is an Australian company, I thought it was Australian made. Turns out its a made in china product which now leaves me asking questions about the quality of the product...
 
902185858_1_9999_v1_m56577569830696227.jpg
 
Sarge,
I would like to suggest that you take a look into the PourThru method. It will give you the best answer for determining your fertilizer requirements. NC State University has some information about it on their website or do a Google search and it's one of the first links.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/crop/crop_PTS.htm
 
Also become familiar with the Rule of 75 for fertilizer. It'll help a lot. Both Virginia Tech and Cornell University have a good writeup for this. http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/430/430-100/430-100.html

The best thing to do is to find a fertilizer, either home made or commercially available, that gives you all of the macro and micro elements needed. Peters 20-20-20 seems to be a nursery industry standard.

And remember to not buy into fertilizer hype. Nitrogen is nitrogen and it does not matter one bit to the plant where the nitrogen comes from. The same can be said for other nutrients as well. So if someone says kelp nitrogen is better than chicken crap nitrogen, well they're wrong. Because the plant is only looking for nitrogen in a certain form and it doesn't care where it comes from. It might matter to you what the source of nitrogen is but not to the plant.
 
Good luck.
 
G'Day Sarge,
 
I use Seasol (it's a tonic only) plus Powerfeed together as a mix for every 2 out of 3 feeds (where the other I use is Thrive).
 
But, when you really want to give 'em some oomph, I recommend Yates Blood'n'Bone professional.
 
My plants have come up so lush with it that it's hard to look away from the result.
 
But, the caveat is that this is for a garden bed with sandy loam as the only constituent.
 
Regards,
 
Tim
 
Edit: the blood'n'bone gives me superior results to dynamic lifter, but each to their own
 
I also like compost.  I add to potting soil at the beginning of the season and also top dress every couple of months.  I also use MG fertilizer every 6 weeks or so.  I will on occasion add Epsom salts to the MG and foliar spray.
 
I will also adjust schedule according to rainfall.  This season we had a lot of rain and I had to increase fertilizer schedule.
 
The plants will tell you.......
 
howardsnm1 said:
My fertilizer of choice is compost tea, the bubbler style. I add a fish/kelp fertilizer after the brew is done. i use this one
 
http://www.amazon.com/Neptunes-Harvest-Organic-Hydrolized-Fertilizer/dp/B000OWBUSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384499511&sr=8-1&keywords=neptune+harvest
 
I am really happy with the results and so are my plants.. :)
Click to expand...
 
 
I'm with Howard on this one, and to quote the first rule of Engineering "Keep it Simple, Stupid!" I've used work castings (aka compost tea, worm tea, it goes by several names). I recently purchased fert from the same company Howard linked here, and people have sworn by it and said their yields increased dramatically with just doing a 50/50 mixture, spraying some on the leaves, and adding the rest to the roots
 
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